2) This book kept me captivated chapter after chapter. The boys, Jake and Michael's behavior was par with their age (all over the place), although sometimes I thought their behavior was more childish than it needed to be (again, age). The story is quite heart wrenching, reading what Thimi and Christy went through and knowing there are so many young ones out there going through the same. C. Kennedy has done an extensive research to get this book written with accuracy and I don't envy him, I know it would've been too difficult for me to have done the same and in the end, come out emotionally intact. I wish there was a fourth book for I didn't care much for how it ended; too open and I would've loved to see how/what punishment the evil families would've gotten. All in all, a very emotional story. Well done!

3) This is a well written book, and part of the series involving Christy, a sexual abuse survivor and victim of sex trafficking. The characters are well developed, complex, and realistic. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand what abuse does to a LGBT character and how survivors can still find hope and love.

4) I enjoyed this story and would have no trouble recommending it to others to read.

Michael and Christy attended prom, graduated high school, and Michael leads the USATF tryouts. With Oxford University on the horizon, his future looks bright, and he believes life has returned to normal after Christy’s rescue. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Christy has been free from a life of slavery for more than a year and has made remarkable progress due in no small part to the love he found with Michael. But the recent prosecution of a past abuser has shattered the life he so painstakingly built out of nothing but a mountain of horror. He now faces the daunting task of building a new life—yet again.

Twelve-year-old Thimi has been missing since Christy left Greece and, unbeknownst to everyone, has hidden out in a vacant mansion in Glyfada. Learning of Christy’s survival is the only thing that brings him out of hiding. People, open spaces, even the most common of sounds frighten him beyond reason. A mere ghost of a boy, Thimi arrives in the US with no knowledge of the outside world—the only constant in his life a purple marble.

Lost, shattered, and afraid, only hope gives them the strength and courage they need to begin anew.

Friday, November 10, 2017

Christy looked at the paper cup containing his medication. It sat in the same place on the breakfast tray every morning. He hated that he had to take medication and, as much as he valued food, he lost his appetite every time he saw the pills. They reminded him of before, of what they did to him. He hated them with the white-hot fury of a thousand suns. He hated the pills even more for reminding him of them. He spent every moment of his pathetic existence fighting not to think about them, not to remember them, not to let them assault his mind as they’d assaulted him—fighting the fear. The fear that one day at least one of them would come for him. To take him back. Back to... before. He struck out sending the tray crashing to the polished tongue-and-groove floor, the food landing with a soft splat. He squeezed his eyes closed, pressed the heels of his hands to his lids, and concentrated. Go away. Leave me alone, he silently begged his vivid memories.

Monday, September 4, 2017

I’m back with another review of a Goode book! Yay! Does it seem most of my reviews are on John Goode’s books these days? They are! All the Goode books are being passed my way and I am a very happy little fanboy!

If you have a book you would like me to review please don’t hesitate to let me know. Request a review here!

It seems that my reviews are far and few between these days.
Right? Well, there are a few reasons for that. First, I have been super busy
with school, tutoring others, and running. It sucks because I enjoy writing
these. Second, I haven’t been all that happy with the community on FB lately. I
love my peeps (those on, and not on, my friends list), but there has been a lot
of drama too. I worked really hard to leave the drama behind when I moved away
from my old home, but there are people who still wanna drag me into stuff. Why?
IDK. I can only guess that they either hate what I represent (they can’t hate
me, they don’t know me), or they don’t really mean it when they say they are in
this community to help people; or both. I decided to back away from the community
a lot. But that doesn’t mean I’m not reading. That doesn’t mean there aren’t
books that I love.

The reason I started out my review like this is because this
book inspired me to speak up. It inspired a lot of things in me, but my right
to be myself and to be happy was what really stuck with me. I am a gay teen kid
in school. All of the Foster High books represent the life I live daily. They
show what we go through in school, at home, and on-line. Being a kid really
sucks. I hate when I hear someone say… “I wish I was a kid again!” They are
stupid because I don’t know what world they came from, but it sure isn’t the
same one I’m from. Mr. Goode is an adult, but he somehow captured exactly what
it is to be a kid in school, especially a gay kid.

Bullying, hate crimes, internet bullying, depression,
suicide…. These are REAL to any kid in school. It doesn’t matter if they are
popular or not. We live it, we breathe it, and we learn how to suck it up. But
why do we have to accept it? Why do I have to be bullied not just by kids at
school, but also adults I encounter both in real life and on-line? Why is it
the very people who tell me it’s safe to ”spread my wings” and be who I want to
be can then turn around and cut me down because I’m not the Timmy they want me
to be? I’m too smart? I type too well? I can write a short story? I must not be a teen gay kid! Well, I’ma
say this for all of you people who believe that: I am that because it is who I
am!

That is the bare bones of this story! Be who you are. Fight those
who say you can’t be that. Show others they are not alone. Be the changer not
the follower. But most of all, you don’t have to be perfect in the eyes of
others to deserve to be treated like a human being.

This story had me going through so much! I mean it, really!
Tears, love, laughter, anger, and just plain scared. It scares me that this is
written as fiction because it is NOT fiction to many teens like me.
There are very important topics talked about in this book, and I am trying hard
not to give anything away, but I want to say the way Mr. Goode added the topic
of insecurities and self-worth to the stories in this series is a big thing. It
is in the main story in this book, it is also in the subplots. I like how he
shows not only how important self-worth is, but that you can still be a hero
even if you need a few pep talks along the way.

So, there were a few things I gotta point out. There were
errors in the book, editing stuff. But nothing will pull you out of this
story. Also, I’m not great at grammar when I am messaging or texting someone,
but there is one thing I will say about this book: the word OK is used WAY too
much. Please fix that, Mr. Goode.

I give this book 5 marbles and I hope you guys will not only read it, but think about what you want from your country. Because one small issue and blowup is the thing that changes lives. You can’t sit back and say I want a better life for Americans, but you expect someone else to be the stepping stone. You can’t sit back and say “I hate bullying!” but then tear others down because of your own insecurities. Because I got enough insecurities of my own, I don’t need ya’ll to put yours on me. Mr. Goode points out these things in a way that makes a huge impact. This book should become a classic. Read this book. Dream of a Waking Man is book ten in the Foster High Series.~Timmy

With high school long behind them, Kyle Stilleno and Brad Graymark are sharing a life, together, content, but happy?

Kyle seems to have given up that spark that made him who he was and Brad is worried it may never come back. When an email from a gay teen asks Kyle for help, he has to choose between his comfortable life of sleeping his life away, or waking up and doing something about it.

John Goode is a member of the class of '88 from Hogwarts school of wizardry, specializing in incantations and spoken spells. At the age of 14 he proudly represented District 13 in the 65th Panem games where he was disqualified for crying uncontrollably before the competition began. After that he moved to Forks, Washington where, against all odds, dated the hot, incredibly approachable werewolf instead of the stuck up jerk of a vampire but was crushed when he found out the werewolf was actually gayer than he was. After that he turned down the mandatory operation everyone must receive at 16 to become pretty citing that everyone pretty were just too stupid to live before moving away for greener pastures. After falling down an oddly large rabbit hole he became huge when his love for cakes combined with his inability to resist what sparsely worded notes commanded and was finally kicked out when he began playing solitaire with the Red Queen's 4th armored division. By 18 he had found the land in the back of his wardrobe but decided that thinly veiled religious allegories where not the neighbors he desired. When last seen he had become obsessed with growing a pair of wings after becoming obsessed with Fang's blog and hasn't been seen since.

Or he is this guy who lives in this place and writes stuff he hopes you read.

Bu' tha' first question on your list right here? Why did you offer a kid squatting in your basement a home? Tha's the kind of question tha' tells you who your friends are. Nobody who knows me - an' is in their right mind - would even think of askin' me tha'. They all know how I'm built.

And Jack wasn' jus' any kid.

Breakin' into my house took serious guts. An' he didn' break in to steal stuff, either. He needed a safe place an' who am I to deny him tha', eh? Everyone needs a safe place, however fortunate we are. Don' you like to hide in bed sometime, whether it's with heartache, a cold, or a favourite book? Imagine you didn' have tha'. Wha' would you do?

Tha's another thing about Jack tha' chokes me up. He chose life on the street over life with the pimp his mother sold him to. No' many people have tha' kind of courage. An' he still had enough heart left to try an' help others.

No' tha' I knew tha' at the beginnin'. Gettin' to know Jack was like gettin' to know a feral cat. You have to do tha' slowly an' carefully or you'll get scratched an' bitten. I did. Figuratively speakin', of course. I got too close too quickly one day, only
tryin' to help, mind. Bu' it scared Jack an' he ran. Worst few weeks of my life. I knew he was out there, all alone an' hurtin', an' I busted a gut to find him again. An' yeah, I was almost too late an' tha' scared the socks off me, I can tell you.

Bu' we got over it. An' Jack... well, he never bothered with school. Never trusted anyone enough for tha'. Bu' he's smart. He studied at home, an' then he started to help me. Gettin' him involved with my kinda crap wasn' perhaps wha' anyone else woulda thought good for him. Bu' I knew. Jack was good at sneakin' around, an' he wanted to help, so I let him.

An' look where he's now. He an' tha' chap he's with, Gareth, they rescued two kids a few months back. So the boy who started out with a mother who didn' deserve tha' name an' nobody to look out for him, now has a family an' two kids of his own. All because he had the courage to accept a bit of help.

Right. Wha' else did you wan' to know?

Jack's favourite colour?

Green, I think. The greener the better. Actually, scratch tha'. He does like really dark greens, bu' I think he has a thing for tha' silver green leather Hotshot makes shoes and jackets from. I'd swear I've seen him in one just the other day. It's the same colour as his eyes, and it looks badass.

Next. Jack's favourite food?

Once upon a time, tha' would have been green apples and pizza and hot chocolate. No' all at the same time, of course. Then he discovered coffee - round abou' the time all the coffee shops started up - an' tha' was tha'.

An' you know wha'? I'm no' gonna get into a music discussion with you all. I'm no' tha' patient. Wha' I will say is tha' when I met Jack he'd been told over an' over tha' he was nothin'. Nobody of consequence. A zero. An' when I told him tha' it's good to be a zero, he looked at me as if I was mad. I meant wha' I told him, though. Zeroes have power. They can change things. An' now tha' Jack's learned tha'... well, you don' wanna mess with him or anyone he cares abou'. Just sayin'. ;-)

ABOUT THE POWER OF ZERO

When a homeless boy meets an ace hacker…

Twelve-year-old Jack Horwood has run from the pimp his mother sold him to, preferring to take his chances on the streets. A house with a cheerful red door – and a classic convertible out front – prompts him into a spot of breaking and entering, and soon he has a warm, dry basement to squat in.

Until the owner of the house, Jamaican hacker Rio Palmer, discovers his hideout. Rio offers him a safe place to stay, but Jack doesn’t believe a word the man says and runs.

Rio can’t forget the youngster who is scared and vulnerable, and stronger than many men Rio has met. Finding Jack is a tiny challenge. Teaching him to trust is like climbing a mountain. But when faced with a true zero and its power, Rio can do nothing else.

ABOUT JACKIE KESWICK

Jackie Keswick was born behind the Iron Curtain with itchy feet, a bent for rocks and a recurring dream of stepping off a bus in the middle of nowhere to go home. She's worked in a hospital and as the only girl with 52 men on an oil rig, spent a winter in Moscow and a summer in Iceland and finally settled in the country of her dreams with her dream team: a husband, a cat, a tandem, a hammer and a laptop.

Jackie writes thrillers, suspense, sci-fi and fantasy - often with love stories built in. She loves unexpected reunions and second chances, and characters who don't follow the rules when those rules are stupid. She blogs about English history and food, has a thing for green eyes, and is a great believer in making up soundtracks for everything, including her characters and the cat.

And she still hasn't found the place where the bus stops.

For questions and comments, not restricted to green eyes, bus stops or recipes for traditional English food, you can find Jackie Keswick in all the usual places:

Saturday, June 17, 2017

An Interview with Robin Reardon: What's a straight, cisgender (slightly queer on the inside) female author like you doing writing in the world of GLBTQIA teen fiction?

Author Robin Reardon answers this and other questions about her work and her latest release, Waiting for Walker, which features a gay teen and an intersex teen.

It's my great pleasure to have Robin on my blog today, and she was kind enough to allow me to interview her. Her newest novel, Waiting for Walker, is a wonderful story and I can't recommend it highly enough. So much so, I wrote a foreword for the book. Check out my awesome interview with Robin and don't forget to scroll down and enter the give-away! FIVE lucky people will win an ecopy of Waiting for Walker!

Cody: Let's take it from the top. How did you get into writing in this area of fiction?Robin:Isn't late teens the most intense time of a person's life? I mean, either something is critically important or it's "whatever." Teens know more than their parents and teachers one minute, and the next they feel like total idiots who'll never be able to figure out this thing called Life. And anything can change with no more than a second's warning.

So I wanted to write for teens, and GLBTQIA teens are under-represented. And misunderstood. I want to support them by writing. If my writing makes even one young person feel better about him, her, or theirself, then I have done a good thing. And I write about boys because—well, because I know what it feels like to want a man. See? Even adults can be a little queer on their gender identity.

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